Erosion control sediment barrier systems are used and needed in many different applications throughout the world every year. For example, many miles of pipelines are laid into excavations throughout the United States every year. The pipelines are utilized for carrying many varied materials, such as salt water, natural gas, crude oil, and the like. Many of these pipelines are laid on mountainous or highly graded terrain, some of which may be very remote.
In such circumstances, it has been found that drainage issues involving pipelines, particularly newly laid pipelines, can be problematic. Specifically, since water can easily permeate the soil in the trench created to lay a pipeline, even after backfilling, there have been issues in the past with this water flowing down highly graded areas, sometime causing minor washouts under and around the pipeline, sometimes washing out the pipeline altogether.
Accordingly, it has been found desirable to provide such installations with “trench breakers” that stop or retard the flow of water at certain intervals down the pipeline. Such trench breakers that have been used in the past include sand bags and closed cell foam. While these types of solutions have been helpful, they have also been problematic. Specifically, the use of sandbags is labor intensive and expensive given the weight thereof and the frequent remoteness of the areas where these applications are installed. Additionally, sand bags have very low water permeability. Thus, while the use of sand bags is helpful in stopping the water flow down the backfilled trench, the backup of water behind the bags can result in significant hydrostatic pressure build-up which can, at times, lead to failures in the sandbag trench breakers. Furthermore, the use of sandbags requires workers to enter the excavation site thereby requiring the use of expensive and time consuming safety measures during the installation process to protect the safety of the workers.
Additionally, while the use of closed cell foams (such as urethane foams), has alleviated some of the cost and labor intensive installation issues, they have been relatively ineffective in resolving the issues caused by hydrostatic buildup behind trench breakers installed as such due to the fact that closed cell foam (as opposed to open cell foam) is almost entirely water impermerable.
Other examples of applications and/or situations in which it would be desirable to have an erosion control sediment barrier system include pavement installations, blanket drains, base courses, drains for structures such as retaining walls, bridge abutments, wraps for well pumps, interceptor toe drains, surface drains, chimney drains for damns, etc. More specifically, erosion control sediment barrier systems are desired in applications where it is desired to stop or limit sediment, soil and/or mass water flow while not preventing controlled water flow therethrough.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to have an erosion control sediment barrier system for use in the above-identified applications that is relatively light, inexpensive and non-labor intensive to install, and which resolves some issues created by the hydrostatic pressure build-up behind the barrier system found when using prior art erosion control sediment barriers.